In the popular consciousness, “Tecmo Bowl” usually means the 1989 NES port, if not 1991’s Tecmo Super Bowl. Today, The Onion, satirizing White House sports photo ops, shows off its gamer cred by going back to the game’s original arcade version, which featured only the “Bulldogs” and “Wildcats”—coached by BOB and ASS.

No Big Deal, Dude Just Made Link And Mario Out Of Twist-Ties

Sometimes you just want to make a model of Link from The Legend of Zelda, and the only thing you have on hand are some twist-ties. The rest, as they say, is history. At least, that seems to be the approach of Deviantartist JustJake54, who recently made those TMNT twist-ties we posted, and now has…

Will Xbox One Ruin GameFly? GameFly Won’t Say.

The video game industry has declared war against used games, and one of the biggest casualties might be GameFly, the video game by-mail rental service. With news that Xbox One games will come with one-time-use activation codes that lock them to your Xbox Live account, it’s become clear that Microsoft’s next console will limit the…

Imagine If—Bear With Me—We Didn’t Always Binge On Games and Shows

The new season of Arrested Development is out on Netflix—all fifteen episodes of it. You’re not “supposed” to, but you could watch the entire season right away if you wanted. I’m guessing at least some of you did just that. Binge-watching something on Netflix isn’t uncommon. If a show hooks you well enough, and you…

This 20-Minute Supercut Of Cinematic Video Game References Is A Saga

Hollywood sure does love a good video game reference, as evidenced by this remarkably thorough supercut of cinematic video game references and arcade appearances edited by Travis Greenwood and Brett Roberts for Slacktory I cannot even begin to imagine the research that went into this. That must’ve been fun. They even managed to get The…

Kingdom Rush: Frontiers, the sequel to my favorite iOS game, is coming out on June 6. Cannot wait.

Well Of Course This Neon Cyberpunk Hacking Game Is Called Wetware

Welcome to Wetware, an upcoming 80s-tinged cyberpunk strategy game from Reality Council that puts you in charge of a “megacorporate network” and tasks you with, well, taking over the internet. From the description on the Reality Council website: Hire elite hackers to attack other networks, steal information, crash their nodes and protect your assets. Get…

New Anita Sarkeesian Video Calls Out Gaming’s ‘Women in Refrigerators’

Feminist Frequency blogger/video host Anita Sarkeesian is back with the second in her “Tropes vs. Women in Games” series, in which she analyzes sexist tropes in video games. The first video in the series looked back at the origins of the “Damsel in Distress” trope, focusing mostly on Nintendo games. The new video puts more…

#PS4NoDRM: The Next-Gen Twitter Campaign That’s Got Sony’s Attention

Gamers are taking to Twitter to fight for their rights as consumers, and the gaming world seems to be paying attention. It started with a rumor. Following confirmation that the Xbox One will have some form of restriction on the way people can trade and borrow their games, GTTV’s Geoff Keighley came out and said…

Sonic’s New Move in His Nintendo-Exclusive Adventure Is…a Wall-Run?

This fall’s Nintendo-only Sonic game, Sonic Lost World, looks like it’ll feature 2D and 3D gameplay, similar to the other recent pretty-good Sonic games. IGN just ran the game’s first trailer, which you can see above. The trailer hypes Sonic’s new moves. I see a wall run, Prince of Persia-style. What jumps out to you?…

Police Blotter: He Smashed, She Smashed

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. He Sends a Laptop to the Hospital, You Send…

The People Behind Video Games Give Their Take on the Violent Media Debate

There tends to be one thing missing from the all-too-easy media narratives that offer causal connections between video games and violent crimes and tragedies: the people who make and/or play games. Lawmakers and concerned non-gamers are usually the focus of a camera’s lens, justifiably so, but developers and fans don’t get that much screen time.…

He Wants To Share The Untold Stories Behind Japanese Video Games

Once in a while, a Kickstarter project comes along that makes you want to drop everything and yell about it to anyone who might listen. This is one of those Kickstarters. John Szczepaniak, best known for his work profiling Japanese games and game developers at websites like Hardcore Gaming 101, is trying to raise £50,000…

The Moneysaver: Injustice $35, XCOM $10, Star Trek Into Darkness, 24

Cheap: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Moneysaver. Its five-year ongoing mission: to explore strange new retailers; to seek out new deals and new discounts, to boldly save more than any man one has saved before. You have 45 minutes to get Tomb Raider for $30 on consoles. Go! Hope everyone…

Microsoft Vows To Support Indie Developers on Xbox One

A report last week that the next Xbox console won’t allow independent game developers to self-publish on the Xbox One gave people yet another next-gen Xbox thing to stew about. But Microsoft’s Xbox chief says that Xbox One will have some sort of indie-friendly program. We’re not necessarily in contradiction territory here but rather in—stop…

In a lengthy interview published Friday at Gamasutra, DayZ creator Dean Hall says that a handful of people are already playing an alpha of the standalone version of the game, and that the public alpha will begin in or around June. He says they’ll follow Minecraft‘s example for allowing players to buy in for early…

Playing Journey In Real Life Will Get You Arrested

Mega64’s take on Journey is the best take on Journey. Watch until the end. Totally worth it.

Show Us What You Love And Hate About Mario’s Character Design

Ah Mario; the Superman of video games. He’s the modest, iconic, do-gooder everyone loves. He’s wholesome — a video game character you can bring home to mom for the holidays. Like Superman, Mario has had his highs and his lows (I’m looking at you Hotel Mario and Bob Hoskins) but his design still remains unsullied…

Rayman Legends Coming September 3rd, Including a Version for Vita

It was supposed to be a Wii U exclusive but now Rayman Legends—after that controversial delay—will be coming to a total of four systems on September 3rd. Along with Nintendo’s home console, the action platformer will be hitting the PS3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Vita. The version for Sony’s handheld will include five exclusive maps…

Xbox One’s Kinect Can Turn Off, Microsoft Says, Noting Privacy Worries

The state of confusion around the new Xbox One console is such that we’re delighted to bring you the news that Microsoft’s next console has a power button. What’s more: its watchful new Kinect sensor that must be plugged in for the console to run can be turned off. Oh brother, big brother! Maybe this…